Arsenal Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread 2013/14

Nuri Sahin

Quazzie wrote: »

Are you saying we were lucky to win?

Arsenal had some luck and defended excellently after the goal. That's not me taking anything away from Arsenal's result if that what is you're thinking, which I have a feeling you are tbh. Luck plays a massive factor in winning a league or tournament (reference BVB v Malaga last year if you wish), luck is something most football fans of opposing teams scoff at for some bizarre reason. I'm not of that type of mindset.

FearDark

Nuri Sahin wrote: »

Arsenal had some luck and defended excellently after the goal. That's not me taking anything away from Arsenal's result if that what is you're thinking, which I have a feeling you are tbh. Luck plays a massive factor in winning a league or tournament (reference BVB v Malaga last year if you wish), luck is something most football fans of opposing teams scoff at for some bizarre reason. I'm not of that type of mindset.

We certainly rode our luck at times. There were periods where I was sure Dortmund would score. We also played quite well at times too though. You'd expect that in a game where two good teams come up against each other, usually when theres only a goal in it theres also a lot of luck involved in the reslult. Thats football. I thought we were better in the first game between us and we didn't deserve to loose at all, but again, thats football.

fulmer1984

fulmer1984 wrote: »

haha

The topless guy is by far the funniest, after the goal he's like "ooooh, where's my top..."

imtdub

How Immense was the little Mozart...

keano_afc

Spurs are playing Sheriff tomorrow night in the Europa League.

I just find that hilarious.

HazDanz

Just to mention the best part of our defence tonight - Merts prodding leg. What a fcuking weapon we have there.

keano_afc

Sagna was immense as well. Seriously, why are we dicking him about on a contract? Jenkinson is far from ready.

iMuse

One of the parts of our defense is leaving at the end of the season, Hopefully Bac will stay on and sign a new deal.

FearDark

keano_afc wrote: »

Sagna was immense as well. Seriously, why are we dicking him about on a contract? Jenkinson is far from ready.

Couldn't agree more, in fact the prospect of just having Jenkinson scares the crap out of me. I don't rate him at all.

Alfred Borden

This sunday feel likes the old matches between us and united, loved that rivalry but feel its back

greendom

imtdub wrote: »

How Immense was the little Mozart...

So much energy and zest for a 33 year old - seeing him at his best now. Going to be tough job for Arsene to pick his best team when everyone is fit.

.jacksparrow.

What's merts contract situation, bit of wiki time

Pierce_1991

greendom wrote: »

So much energy and zest for a 33 year old - seeing him at his best now. Going to be tough job for Arsene to pick his best team when everyone is fit.

Ah sure in football years he's only 24 :P

greendom

Pierce_1991 wrote: »

Ah sure in football years he's only 24 :P

True he's kept himself fresh waiting for the glory years to return

imtdub

greendom wrote: »

So much energy and zest for a 33 year old - seeing him at his best now. Going to be tough job for Arsene to pick his best team when everyone is fit.

I just love his turn and run, and not to forget his sliding tackles

Gringo180

keano_afc wrote: »

Spurs are playing Sheriff tomorrow night in the Europa League.

I just find that hilarious.

Sheriff Yc ??? Haha

Turtwig

I know you guys rode your luck a bit but I must say it was still a very impressive performance by Arsenal. Defensively that offside trap was brilliant. Dortmund fatigued themselves a lot more in comparison to Arsenal. I don't know if it was intentional on Wenger's part or player's being lazy but Giroud et al not backtracking was actually in your favour. Dortmund were afraid to press too much.

jester77

HazDanz wrote: »

Just to mention the best part of our defence tonight - Merts prodding leg. What a fcuking weapon we have there.

He has a 10 foot leg!

Gringo180

Up in 6 hours for work but i just cant sleep, buzzing here. That win will us great belief I honestly cannot wait for Sunday now!!

wandatowell

GIF's make everything look funny.

Roddy23

Fantastic result tonight lads. Hopefully keep our away form going this weekend.

Just saw this Podolski was at the match tonight sitting in the Arsenal fans section. Chap is a bit of a legend, after his black cab ride around London last year, and some of his recent Twitter posts http://m.101greatgoals.com/blog/respect-arsenals-lukas-podolski-posts-an-instagram-video-with-the-away-fans-at-dortmund

cson

7pts from those 3 games would be excellent. I say that because I think we're gonna have it up us to get a result at Old Trafford; its a bit of a graveyard for us results wise and the wounded animal being most dangerous adage rings true too. They raise it when they see us and we sometimes flatter to deceive against them.

jamescd

iMuse wrote: »

One of the parts of our defense is leaving at the end of the season, Hopefully Bac will stay on and sign a new deal.

Who's leaving

Quixoticelixer

It has been a long time since I have been able to say I'd be bitterly disappointed if we don't come away from Old Trafford with a win. I have dreaded Man Utd games in the last 5/6 years because more often than not Arsenal teams have pissed their pants at the very sight of United, they have made playing against us look very easy at times.

It's nice to have an Arsenal I can actually believe in now!

Massive game for United, they need to win this, a win for Arsenal would really hurt them, not just in terms of the title race, but the unrest would grow, more and more questions would be asked about Moyes. We can almost do to them what they did to us in August 2011, not beat them 8-2:P, but we can send them into a bit of a meltdown.

A win for them, and the nay sayers will be out in force, the likes of Alan Hansen will be falling over themselves to say "I told you so", but more importantly it would give United a bit of a kick start, can't let that happen, better to kick them when they are down rather than give them a helping hand back up again.

Hyzepher

As i was watching the game tonight I could help but think AW had a master plan similar to that of Muhammad Ali vs Foreman in the famous rope-a-dope match. Let Dortmund press and run around and then finally give the nod and raise the pace. It was funny when it kind of happened immediately after the goal.

Turtwig

Slightly off topic, but AW did comment once on French tv of how Mourinho was using that tactic for inter or porto. It's efficiency play. The team defending deep if done correctly can save more stamina than the attacking team and then in the final twenty minutes of the game they have the greater intensity by a game changing margin. Not saying that was his plan tonight though.:)

emergingstar

7 players injured but we have no squad

One if the best defences in the league but our defence is dodgy

This team is gonna challenge this year

wandatowell

Top of the Premier League and top of our Champions League group.


I didnt expect this after the Villa match.

gnfnrhead

Imagine how amazing it would be to have a reversal of that 8-2 result.

Wont happen, but still.

jester77

gnfnrhead wrote: »

Imagine how amazing it would be to have a reversal of that 8-2 result.

Wont happen, but still.

Never going to happen. Any time we have been on a roll it has nearly always been Utd that brought us back down to earth. This will be tough, very tough. We will need another big performance from Arteta/Flamini just like against Liverpool, Rooney/Van Persie are just as dangerous as Suarez/Sturridge. I would be delighted with any win. But a draw would be ok, just as long as we don't lose. A loss here is more than just 3 points.

G1032

jester77 wrote: »

Never going to happen. Any time we have been on a roll it has nearly always been Utd that brought us back down to earth.

An Alex Ferguson Man United..........

bad2dabone

United will try to kick us off the park - when we are better than them its a tactic they resort to.
Hopefully we'll be prepared for the physical confrontation.
There's no way they're as good as Dortmund. If we can play at a similar standard to the pool and last night we will win. If we are knackered then we could struggle as united will be up for it. But apart from the strikers and goalie they are not to be feared.

Royale with Cheese

Take rooney and van persie out of the united team and they probably wouldnt have a hope of beating arsenal at the moment. Theyre struggling this year because they're an average side without those two. I don't think any united mid would get in the arsenal side. Not much of the defence either.

bad2dabone

Rooney and Van Persie would get in to our side, chicarito the squad, nobody else though.
I'd take Kagawa as a backup for our backups.

greendom

jester77 wrote: »

Never going to happen. Any time we have been on a roll it has nearly always been Utd that brought us back down to earth. This will be tough, very tough. We will need another big performance from Arteta/Flamini just like against Liverpool, Rooney/Van Persie are just as dangerous as Suarez/Sturridge. I would be delighted with any win. But a draw would be ok, just as long as we don't lose. A loss here is more than just 3 points.

A loss would be bad if we react badly to it in following fixtures. Teams do lose, its part of football. The key thing is to put it right in the subsequent fixtures.

The way we play is important too. Last season's performance at Old Trafford was awful. Such an insipid surrendering to Van Persie and co. We were very lucky to get away with a 2 1 loss. Hopefully those days are long gone.

bad2dabone

I'm actually more worried about Southampton, I think that'll be a tough game.

Oranage2

bad2dabone wrote: »

Rooney and Van Persie would get in to our side, chicarito the squad, nobody else though.
I'd take Kagawa as a backup for our backups.

De gea too I'd say but that's probably about it.

Pepe LeFrits

United are far more dangerous than you're giving them credit for. Any team with Rooney and the other one is going to be a major threat and they've got plenty of others who have ridden us hard down through the years. They may be lacking quality ball players in the centre but they've always been a team built to get the ball wide and forward quickly, which we never like playing against.

This our biggest test of the season so far, even bigger than last night.

That said, I think we should get at least a draw, as long as there are no new injury concerns.

bad2dabone

Oranage2 wrote: »

De gea too I'd say but that's probably about it.

he's a really good keeper, but Sczesney's been great since the villa game. I'm not dropping him for some spanish nancy

bad2dabone

Pepe LeFrits wrote: »

United are far more dangerous than you're giving them credit for.

perhaps.

I just really don't want us to give them any respect on Sunday though. We've been too soft against them in recent years, some lame performances.

AdamD

I'd take a draw away at United, keeps the momentum going and gives us the international break to get players back.

Pepe LeFrits

bad2dabone wrote: »

perhaps.

I just really don't want us to give them any respect on Sunday though. We've been too soft against them in recent years, some lame performances.

Well, as long as that doesn't mean complacency, I agree

Without Ferguson thus won't have the consistency (and probably a few other things) to win the title this year, but they'll still be well able to produce performances.

bishopmuzorewa

keano_afc wrote: »

Spurs are playing Sheriff tomorrow night in the Europa League.

I just find that hilarious.

Don't be getting too cocky just yet

keano_afc

bishopmuzorewa wrote: »

Don't be getting too cocky just yet

Cocky? How was that cocky? I find it funny tis all.

EuropeanSon

bishopmuzorewa wrote: »

Don't be getting too cocky just yet

Ii think now is a fairly appropriate time to be cocky regarding Spurs. We're top of the league, have beaten Spurs, just beat second place very comfortably, and are also top of our Champions League group after beating the second best team in Europe last year. Spurs are somewhere beneath us, and playing Sheriff in the Europa League.

Quixoticelixer

bishopmuzorewa wrote: »

Don't be getting too cocky just yet

Ah here, it's rather precious of you to interpret that as being "cocky"!

bad2dabone

bishopmuzorewa wrote: »

Don't be getting too cocky just yet

Not cocky, I for one am thankful to Spurs.
Thanks for selling Madrid Bale so Madrid could sell us Ozil. Thanks for that.

Thanks to AVB for saying we were on a negative spiral. Since that we've gone 8 months unbeaten away. We clawed your team back and put you back in our shadow. Thanks.

And thanks for giving us a good laugh as you play Sherrif in who-knows-where while we beat both of last years Champions league finalists at their homes, and keep them scoreless.

Negative. Spirals.

Quixoticelixer

bad2dabone wrote: »

Not cocky, I for one am thankful to Spurs.
Thanks for selling Madrid Bale so Madrid could sell us Ozil. Thanks for that.

Thanks to AVB for saying we were on a negative spiral. Since that we've gone 8 months unbeaten away. We clawed your team back and put you back in our shadow. Thanks.

And thanks for giving us a good laugh as you play Sherrif in who-knows-where while we beat both of last years Champions league finalists at their homes, and keep them scoreless.

Negative. Spirals.

Be fair, we should be grateful to Tottenham for all that advice to mind the gap in the previous two seasons, we took it on board and did an excellent job in managing that gap in both seasons.

bad2dabone

Quixoticelixer wrote: »

Be fair, we should be grateful to Tottenham for all that advice to mind the gap in the previous two seasons, we took it on board and did an excellent job in managing that gap in both seasons.

I am grateful, spurs have done a lot for our club.
Credit where its due.

artvandelay48

Hyzepher wrote: »

At what point do you think the idiots on MOTD will start to say we have a CHANCE of the title. Will a win next weekend do it for them or will they just focus on ManU being out of it rather than our good form

On the Guardian's football weekly podcast, they quipped that Alan Shearer would only say that Arsenal could win the league when they've beaten all the other teams!

(Apologies if we've moved on since then, i've only listened to the podcast)